Liberation of Paris

Conscious of the highly symbolic and political importance of Paris, Allied forces initially planned to surround the city and wait for its capitulation rather than risk taking it, with the inherent costs of street-by-street fighting and obvious risks to the …

1944-08-24

22

Conscious of the highly symbolic and political importance of Paris, Allied forces initially planned to surround the city and wait for its capitulation rather than risk taking it, with the inherent costs of street-by-street fighting and obvious risks to the population. Legend has it that Paris? garrison commander, General von Choltitz, was so moved by the city's beauty, as seen from his hotel room on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, that he chose not to carry out Hitlers order to destroy the City. He also arranged a citywide truce with the Resistance. It was perhaps this last action which set the Allied commanders thinking that they could take the city instead of bypassing it. Also, Generals Leclerc and deGaulle insisted the city be liberated to restore French national pride. The mission was, therefore, assigned to the V Corps with Leclerc to lead the attack. But the approach into Paris was by no means as easy as expected. Choltitz had used the city truce to prepare the defenses outside the city. He was far from being ready to hand over the capital to the Allies without a fight. Leclerc's Frenchmen attacked towards Paris at dawn on the 24th of August, in two columns. The left column, under Colonel de Langlade, immediately ran into German defenses, and was held up for hours in a firefight that saw the destruction of a number of German tanks. The right hand column, under Colonel Billotte, faced even more serious opposition and was quickly bogged down outside the capital by a series of strong points in several small villages. That same night, defenses quickly evaporated when Choltitz ordered his troops to withdraw behind the Seine. The next day, August 25th, Choltitz surrendered to Leclerc at the Gare Montparnasse.

Paris, France

The Liberation of Paris was a military battle that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Paris had been ruled by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice on 22 June 1940, after which the Wehrmacht occupied northern and western France.

Wikipedia: Liberation of Paris

German

French

Game Type: Standard

Board Type: Countryside

Website Access: Available